Dallas Mavericks Blog

OKLAHOMA CITY _ The Mavericks defeated Oklahoma City 4-1 in last year’s Western Conference finals. But the Thunder won three of four regular-season meetings this season and now leads this first-round playoff series, 2-0.

Dallas has lost four straight to the Thunder, albeit by close margins of 3, 1, 4 and 9 points.

“We knew this was going to be a tight series,” Shawn Marion said. “Every game is going down to the last possession. Unfortunately enough, we didn’t catch a break. I thought it was in our hands again and some unfortunate things happened on the floor.”

Monday night, the Thunder outscored Dallas 6-2 in the final 50.4 seconds.

In Game 1, Oklahoma City outscored Dallas 12-4 in the final 2:17. In a regular-season game here on March 5, the Thunder went on an 8-0 run in the final 2:24 to win 95-91. And on Feb. 1 in Dallas, OKC outscored the Mavericks 10-1 in the final 1:59 to win 95-86.

“We just haven’t made enough plays,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “It’s tough. There’s no question about it, they’ve made one more play than we have in both games and that’s how playoff basketball is.

“As my good friend Ron Washington would say, ‘That’s how baseball goes sometimes.’ You have to give them credit for what they’re doing. We can’t dig ourselves into a 16-point hole in the first half _ that’s something that’s tough.”